Carbon nanotube sheets to control stem cell differentiation and in vivo thrombin detection on the cover of Issue 6

On the covers this issue we have articles from Tai Hyun Park et al and Quyen Nguyen et al.

Tai Hyun Park and colleagues have used multi-walled carbon nanotube sheets as a matrix to control the differentiation and direction of stem cell growth into neural cells. The MWCNTs directed the growth pattern of axons, and could open up new avenues for tissue and stem cell regeneration with regenerative medicine applications.

Our other cover article is from Quyen Nguyen and team, which included Nobel Laureate Roger Tsein, who have developed an imaging probe which can be used in vivo to detect thrombin in plagues. They hope that the sensitive probe could eventually be used clinically to detect and diagnose atherosclerosis non-invasively, in a similar way to tumour detection by MRI.